Guilbeault leaving caucus amid Carney's climate rollback
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Summary
In this week's show, we cover: Prime Minister Carney says a referendum question asking Albertans about independence is a dangerous bluff and not helpful. Former Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo is reportedly disgruntled over his government's rollback of Trudeau-era climate policies, and particularly unhappy with a deal signed with Alberta that could one day lead to pipeline construction. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra says Canadian forces inside Canada have whipped up anti-American sentiment against his country, and says Canadian opposition to America makes no sense. The RCMP has expressed deep concern over a CBC-APTN prank comedy production aimed at humiliating retired members of the force.
Transcript
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CTV News is reporting former Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo may soon quit the Liberal
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Caucus. Gilbo is reportedly disgruntled over his government's rollback of Trudeau-era climate
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policies and particularly unhappy with a deal signed with Alberta that could one day lead to
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pipeline construction. Industry Minister Melanie Jolie was asked about it.
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I'm a good friend of Stephen. I've worked a lot to bring him in politics, and he will always be a good friend.
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I also think that I'm part of much more the environmentalist part of the Liberal Party and Cabinet,
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but I also think that what we've done with the MOU makes sense,
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because I also think that we need to be able to have one of the most important provinces
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that is the main energy producer in Canada, part of our plan.
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CTV is citing sources who say Gilbo will likely sit as an independent
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and possibly jeopardize Carney's razor-thin majority in Parliament.
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Prime Minister Carney says a referendum question
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asking Albertans about independence is a dangerous bluff and not helpful.
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when asked, Carney would not say if he tried to dissuade Premier Smith from posing the
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referendum question this fall. Can I ask you, when you met with Daniel Smith, Premier Smith
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in Calgary, did you try to persuade her not to put a question of separation to Alberta voters
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in October? And I guess if I could ask as a second part, now that there is this question in place,
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how much uncertainty does it create for investors who want to put money into a pipeline or any other
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kind of project in Alberta look it's I mean the premier has proposed this the
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question and other questions with it as I said earlier Tom we will look at we
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will discharge our responsibilities look at consistency of the of the question
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about a question if I can put it that way on separation is it helpful to ask
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these fundamental questions no it's not helpful of course it's not is it is it
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the democratic will of Albertans? Did they vote for this in the last provincial election? No,
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they didn't. More than 300,000 Albertans signed a petition supporting independence for the
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province. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra says forces inside Canada have whipped up
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anti-American sentiment against his country. He says Canadian opposition to America makes no sense.
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You've got folks who are doing everything they can to get the Canadian public to rally against America.
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But do you understand where that frustration is coming from?
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In Canada, because a lot of Canadians are saying, well, we didn't do anything wrong,
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There are two countries that have retaliated against America.
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So far, negotiations aimed at extending the USMCA-KUSMA free trade agreement have made little progress.
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The RCMP has expressed deep concern over a CBC-APTN prank comedy production aimed at humiliating retired members of the force.
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RCMP Commissioner Mike Duhem is not happy with the way members were treated.
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The police union went further, saying it's a disgusting way to treat members who suffer from PTSD.
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The production involved luring retired vets under false pretenses, then humiliating them.
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The union wants the footage from that production destroyed.
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Okay, guys, let's be real. Crime is up. Repeat offenders are released on bail.
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Our guest today is Kirk Lubomov, a business consultant and commentator coming to us from Calgary.
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I'm doing just great. I want to read this post of yours on X.
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Canada brings tremendous strengths to Alberta, question mark.
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Sure, but it also brings tremendous amounts of cost and red tape.
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You can argue pro or against independence, but these are the facts.
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I guess I would ask, are people in Alberta resonating with those facts, or do they still have an attachment to Canada that you think would lead to a no vote on the referendum?
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Yeah, I think there is a couple aspects of it, right?
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There is the emotional side, and then there is the factual side that people are voting for.
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You know, a lot of people are touched to Canada just because it's candidates the way things have been, but the economic, and I think more important to political opportunity is much greater.
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uh alberta's economy is about about one fifth of it comes from canada uh about a third of it comes
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from internal consumption just a little more from then from capital investment and about a third of
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it comes from uh to us because the us is our biggest export partner and most of our goods go
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there such as energy so my post was in reply to mark carney who said we can be we're wealthier
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together and and how much opportunity canada brings to alberta the issue is canada could
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bring opportunities to alberta but they choose not to when you uh put extra taxes extra red tape
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on alberta's businesses uh for them in order for them to actually be allowed to even conduct
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business and grow it just makes no sense so the question is where is the bigger biggest economic
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opportunity and it's not necessarily with canada the way it's going if canada wants to change its
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way if auto wants to change its way then it's a fair conversation to have but when you tell us
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we have to spend 30 billion dollars on a carbon capture project you know to build a 30 billion
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dollar pipeline you know that's a hundred percent penalty on doing business with canada for alberta
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so it just some things just do not make sense yeah i mean there's also talk about the fact that
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a referendum question could discourage investment in alberta but it seems to me that's that's already
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taken the place i mean he described the referendum question as a dangerous bluff he likens it to
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brexit which of course he opposed but do you think that alberta would have a harder time
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attracting investment if it was separate from canada i don't think so and you know even during
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this whole conversation of uh referendum of separation albert is still really the top place
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in canada that's uh getting capital invested in a number of projects from uh aviation from to oil
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and gas to tech so it you know just a conversation itself as much as the cbc pundits that's getting
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platform keeps saying that will impact alberta why would anyone invest in alberta reality is
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We're an entrepreneur province, and we have a really good policy that are protecting our industries, that are freeing our industries.
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And I think that is the biggest question here and the biggest political opportunity is if we can operate without having to pay ridiculous amounts of carbon taxes, without having to bow down to some ridiculous policy that comes out of Ottawa.
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for one ideological reason or another this is the political opportunity and getting rid of it
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will actually attract even more capital into alberta you know those policies are the exact
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reason why why canada has lost over close to a trillion dollars in investment over the last
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12 10 years or so so we can't be talking how uh scary to separation conversation is when
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Canada as a whole has lost so much money because of liberal policies to begin with.
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I think if Alberta was to decouple from Canada and ditch the regulations,
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ditch the carbon capture stuff, there would be a massive sucking sound of investment into Alberta.
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I think investment would pour in not only from the United States, but from Canada itself,
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because of course taxes would be a lot lower and the i mean i i think i just don't know if that's
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enough of a selling point for for albertans who many of whom still love the flag and still love
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the maple leaf and still feel a strong tug towards canada and selling the idea of independence i
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think has to go beyond the economics of it you know yeah would you agree with that yeah i i agree
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you know the hardest thing to get people to do is change change is the scariest thing psychologically
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for for us as a species of humans so it's uh it's something that we naturally try to resist
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so the the independence movement has to really go even even if we're talking about the economics
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really break it down uh and get the average person to understand the opportunity here
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because one of the hardest things i think in canada especially this day is for people to
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visualize the future and and we need to really play out explain people how everything will play
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out how it will look like you know alberta independence is not against canada it's with
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canada just being independent just being next door and i think it will the whole process needs
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to be really uh i think really cartoonized uh to people just to explain it a lot better so people
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don't have that fear of change yeah and see right now people think well we're losing canada but you
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have to say well what are you getting in return right so you're selling them a new dream you're
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you're saying this is a new future yes uh you know we had decades with canada but it's time
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for something new for us you know we see a brighter future for alberta and then you lay it out
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in the kind of terms that the average person can understand and whether whether or not they'll buy
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it or not it's going to be a hard sell oh yeah yeah you know and i think it needs to it needs
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to also focus on the political opportunity let's remember in alberta our politicians are good or
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our government gets decided for us in the east by the time elections get to alberta that's pretty
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much set in stone who's the government is going to be um we don't elect a senate we don't have
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correct all the wrongs in canada's current democratic institution and i think that is
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even a bigger opportunity than the economic opportunity because if we can correct that
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the amount of capital the debt in itself will attract it would be absolutely spectacular if we
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can create a jurisdiction that that has a lot more uh a lot more freedoms and a lot more rights in it
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a lot more opportunities to actually select your government it's absolutely massive and i think
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it's kind of there's a little bit of hypocrisy here because especially for mark carney as he
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calls us the most european on european country and he's a big fan of to you and to you is essentially
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broke it down to a bunch of countries that you can you know that you can arguably say that should
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have some of them should be combined i should have not some of them have a history of how they
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came together or formed into a country and canada is just late to that game and it's uh
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you know if every province was his own country we were essentially our own eu ish and uh so i find
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it interesting that uh he's against all this independence between canada but you know he's
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all for it within the eu yeah i mean unfortunately for people like danielle smith who i understand
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you know she's a federalist and still believes in canada but you can make the case that arguing for
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the federalist side is basically arguing is defending the status quo in canada because
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there's not going to be a huge change as a result of this mou i mean we've already seen
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what it is we all you know we it's already still a problem for the industry they've
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already been clear about that you talked about it yourself this carbon capture the 30 billion dollars
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that it's going to cost this carbon is how much is going to add to the price of a barrel of oil
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i mean it's just not going to be cost effective for investors to get in and under the current
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regime as it's spelled out in the mou and so albertans have to be told if they're going to
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to argue if they're going to vote in favor of separation is that the other side wants the
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status quo. You know, they've got a huge stake, a financial stake and a power stake in keeping
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things just the way they are. They like it just the way they are. The power is concentrated in
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Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and they intend to keep it that way. They have no incentive
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to to change things because things are good for them you know what i'm saying yeah yeah and and
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it's good for all parties right these career politicians from all sides they get the automatic
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raises in april uh but my question is what have you done for alberta okay you say you're against
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independence okay so what taxes have you reduced for alberta what extra democratic rights have you
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brought to alberta what extra economic freedoms have you brought to alberta and not a lot of
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people can actually answer that and i think that is the problem you know danielle smith i don't
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think she should be pro-independence in general in her role um you know even though she is never
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pro-independence so i'm okay with it but the but i and it goes back to your point especially with
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the mou um we should no province forget about alberta no province in canada should be begging
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canada to do business ottawa should be coming to every single province and asking every single
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province every single premier how can we what red tape can we remove to unleash your economy
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what can what taxes can we reduce to unleash your economy but we have such an opposite
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i'm absolutely lunatic of this lunacy of a system here where in order for us to do business we have
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to agree to a whole bunch of new taxes a whole bunch of red tape and then fund which is basically
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extortion fund a different business that has nothing to do with the core product of what
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we're trying to do in order to even talk about building that industry it's absolutely insane
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it's completely backwards so and you know danielle smith and others just called it meeting in the
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middle you know it's it's it's so uh it's such a political political political uh you know
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language here that we met in the middle of this mo you we gave up every single thing to mark
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carny on a silver platter in order to even be allowed to produce more oil it's a it makes no
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sense yeah it's an anti-growth policy and it's very um top-down you know centralized attitude
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that they have over there they've got the power and they like they like it that way you know yeah
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and so for whatever reason they've adopted an a policy that actually stifles growth
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and you can make a case you know in dollars and cents you're going to be better off you're going
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to be richer you know your house is going to be worth more your job is going to pay all these
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things are going to be great but if they can't establish some kind of vision for the future for
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the province and from a cultural vantage point you got to win the cultural war because ottawa
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knows all about that liberals in particular they know all about cultural wars and you know
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know they're they're geniuses at capitalizing on that and all you have to do is listen to you know
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people like jason kenny make a case for canada based on sentimentality and you know you really
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want to tear it apart you know what i mean even though you've got you've got your spouse is abusing
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you they could still make that case you know and say we're better together you know let's stick it
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out you know we got a great thing going well it's great for you but it's not so great for us and you
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don't want to make the kind of changes that would make us want to stay yeah exactly yeah and and you
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know if you if we look the current uh timing of the of the things right every every opportunity
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mark carney has he has to tell us how dangerous the world has become how uncertain and you know
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how bad the economy is and blah blah blah and they still won't drop their ideological policies
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and red tape that's holding a can at the back yeah so if during this times the liberals just
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do not want to pivot from this nonsense of policies they will never pivot from it and this is that's
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the bottom line of it uh you know we're still going to be neighbors forever um if we're yeah
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it's just we're going to have a different economic
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And I think that is the biggest opportunity here.
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She knows that the majority of people in the UCP,
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But she's a federalist and she's dealing with Carney.
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They seem to have a good relationship, a good working relationship.
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She's trying to sell this MOU to people in her party and across the province.
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And there's kind of a reluctance to accept anything that Ottawa offers.
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um because uh you know even her inner circle is trying to push this uh the success and try to
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rebuke the same words that mark carney is using uh as uh if extra taxes are going to make our
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economy more uh competitive uh which is complete nonsense uh it's unfortunate to see that's coming
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from danielle smith's circle and you know and i've i've said this once and i've said it and
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i'll say it again i think the people danielle smith has around her are is just are completely
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incompetent and unambitious and that's essentially the most unfortunate part about her premiership
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now the thing is in can the people don't necessarily vote for the person the vote
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against a different person so one of the best things to happen to the ucp and to daniel smith
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is nahid nenshi the guy is so unlikable so uh incompetent uh you know he left calgary as a
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mayor with uh uh you know with tax year after year of tax increases crumbling infrastructure
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uh just just complete mismanagement and that is that that is essentially the best thing that could
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have happened for ucp and daniel smith is that people will just not vote for the ndp just because
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of Nahid Nanshi's record and that he's just, you know, his whole campaign is based on lies
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If the NDP had someone a little more central, a little more level-headed, a little more
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grounded, the ECP would be in a lot of trouble.
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But I think this is the best thing that could have happened to them right now.
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